Utah Road Trips, Day 8: Zion National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Virgin River, snow-covered mountains in the background, Zion National Park, Utah

With yesterday’s AWESOME fiery Zion sunset, we were totally motivated to get up early this morning, hopeful for an incredible sunrise.  Alas, it was not to be.  It was already snowing when the alarm sounded at 6 AM.  We still rushed  to get ready and out in the hopes of a clearing, but no, mother nature taunted us.  It stayed grey and snowy all morning…and afternoon…and evening.  In fact, we had to drive 30 mph for a long time through a heavy snowstorm where it seemed the snow was blowing horizontally straight at us, as we drove from Zion on Scenic Byway 12 through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument all the way to Torrey and Capitol Reef.  Every so often, we’d spot headlights on the horizon, slowly making their way toward us, and I’d breathe a sigh of relief.  It was really nice to see another car, so if something happened to us, I’d know someone would eventually come along!  Anyway, in the morning, as the clouds refused to part, we went on another hike to the Lower, Middle, and Upper Emerald Pools in Zion.  I’d heard a lot of good things about these pools, and also seen some nice photos, but it was a little disappointing – the Lower Pool was the best, but still not so impressive after Weeping Rock yesterday.  I think the pools must be more photogenic in the summer.  But on the positive side, we exercised! 

Anyway, as we came down the trail, I stood on the bridge across the Virgin River and photographed the river and mountains, still shrouded by mist and clouds in the distance.  That’s today’s photo-a-day!  As you’ve learned by now, I love HDR, so this is another one.  (If you don’t know what HDR is, check out my blog post on high dynamic range imaging.)  This image is made from five exposures at 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 second at ISO 50 and f/22.  I used the smallest aperture and lowest ISO to slow the shutter speed as much as possible in order to blur the water.  I would have preferred to do a longer exposure, as the water isn’t quite as silky as I would normally like, but as I think it was almost noon, there was too much light.  I could have used my new Singh-Ray Vari ND Grad filter to block out more light, but I’ve discovered that even though I paid the $70 or so extra for the thin-mount version, I still get SEVERE vignetting with my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens.  And since I was on a bridge (otherwise I’d be in the middle of the river), I couldn’t back up, and I was already at 28mm.  But it worked out OK, don’t you think?  I like the cool, wintery color temperature contrasted against the red rocks in the foreground.

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